“Thank you for the best gift I’ve ever had!”

Daniel, Alison, Tim and John have each benefitted from the generous gift of tissue donation in very different ways. These are their stories, and what they would say to their heroic donors if they were given the chance.

‘Someone else can use something from a tragedy’

When Myles died unexpectedly at age 15, his family were in no doubt about his wishes to become a tissue donor.

The heart of the matter: cardiac tissue donation

Although there are mechanical alternatives, nothing beats a donated heart valve for the health and livelihoods of the patients of Dr Peter Skillington, Cardiothoracic Surgeon at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The precious gift of sight

A corneal transplant can change someone’s life. Without donors, many people would simply lose their sight, and often their livelihoods forever.

The life-saving gift of skin for burns patients

Miss Heather Cleland, Head of the Victorian Adult Burns Service at The Alfred Hospital, knows only too well how donated skin can save the lives of patients with complicated burn injuries.

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About DTBV

Established in 1989, the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria (DTBV) was the first multi-tissue bank in Australasia which screens, processes, stores, tests and distributes multiple types of tissue from the one facility. It is a public sector not-for-profit organisation.